Review and Book Giveway - Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes

16 Feb 2008 by maki

As you may know already if you’ve been following Just Bento for a while, cute, highly decorated bentos known as kyaraben (or charaben, short for character bento), or oekaki bento (picture-drawing bento) are not my style, or what this site is largely about. But I am drawn to the sheer work and creativity that goes into those bentos, most of which are made for little kids, as I’ve noted before.

Now there is a new book in English about this type of bento. Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes by Christopher D. Salyers is a compact hardcover book with page after page of full color photos of kyaraben, mostly made by Japanese mothers (and one Japanese father) for their little children. Avid bento fans may have already seen some of the bentos included, such as the famous three little pink pigs bento pictured on the cover. There are also works from two American bento artists, including Spa Woman from Sakurako Kitsa, but the focus is on the Japanese creators.

The book is not really a how-to book, but rather a sort of pocket sized coffee table book (it’s from an art and design book publisher). There are a couple of how-to pages, but the most interesting text is the introduction and the too-short questionnaires with a few of the bento creators. It’s a nice intro to kyaraben . (My one hope though is that it doesn’t further perpetuate the misconception that every Japanese mother makes such elaborate bentos for their children, which I like to repeat a lot is definitely not the case.)

Face Food: The Visual Creativity of Japanese Bento Boxes will be available on March 10th on Amazon.com. I have the advance copy I received for review to give away, with the publisher’s blessing. If you’d like to get this book, leave a comment to this post, being sure to put your email address in the ‘email’ field (don’t worry, it isn’t exposed to spammers) and stating you’d like the book, before the end of Tuesday, February 19th wherever you happen to be. One winner will be selected at random.

[Update:] The drawing is now closed. The lucky winner is Hope, who blogs at The Sinister Scribe. Congratulations Hope!

(We determined the winner with this bit of JavaScript, which generates a random number: Math.ceil(Math.random() * 73) (73 is the number of people who commented).)

This would be make a wicked gift for my husband, who is Japanese, and loves all things bento. Thanks to your site, I’ve been getting lots of practice making yummy lunches for him. Thanks Maki, and keep up the good work!

I love reading or looking at creative character bentos. It is like looking at a miniature work of art, but with the added bonus that it’s edible! Truly takes a lot of dedication, meditation, and work. Like any work of art really!

That book looks amazing. I can’t imagine creating anything like it but you never know! I would love the chance to read it. :) My son is interested in visiting Japan someday; even to live there. So we are learning all we can.

I’ve only been reading your blog for a short while but I’ve incorportated many recipes from it into my family’s menu. (osekihan, char siu bao and no oven pitas for example). Oishii ne!

I saw this book during a search of a local bookstore’s catalog and I was so excited. It looks so cool. I teach in Korea and I can’t help thinking some of my students would love it, too. I want this book! Please enter me in the drawing.

I’ve been looking at this book on amazon for a while waiting for a date for it to be released. Please enter me in the drawing. I am just getting into bentos and started a blog a few weeks ago. Your website has been a great inspiration to me and has taught me so many good techniques. I’ve even passed on many of the ideas to my mom and she loves it. (freezing rice, she is amazed that you can do this lol) This book would be a great jumping off point of inspiration for me. I know a lot of people say its too much work to then eat but life is short and I’m an artist so I say go for it!

I have been making bento since last year and found your website to be very informative. The book looks very interesting and I would like to have it, unfortunately it’s still not avaiable in amazon.de…:-(

I really like seeing how the bento culture is starting to take root in other countries. I know that the majority of bento are not character-based, but this would still be a lovely book to add to any collection!

It’s amazing how popular kyaraben are - a book dedicated to this! My mother would make very beautiful bento when I was growing up, but as you said, she didn’t go to this extent - nor would I have wanted her to. Cute artform that is delicious, what more can you ask for? =) Thanks.

oooh! id love this book- im slightly ashamed to say i make ‘character’ bentos for my son- although the best ive made so far are soot sprites! he thinks they are cool though, plus he is the only child at his play group (hes 3) who gets to scoff down ‘mum style’ sushi for lunch instead of soggy-sarnies! (sandwiches!) :)
ps- putting this lil comp up sems like a great way to get the site lurkers (like me!) to post- lol!